Much of what I write and speak about on gardening occurs in my gardens at Hiddenhaven. On this page I’ll share photographs and other fun information about Hiddenhaven. You may see info here about plants, or even my humorous chickens, dogs and cats. Also on this page you’ll see other beautiful and inspirational gardens from my travels.

Let’s begin with a slideshow of some of my favorite photos….all taken in my Hiddenhaven garden!

Dominic my Dominique rooster likes to follow me around the gardens. He will eat scratch or kitchen scraps out of my hand and likes to be alert to any possible treats. On this particular spring day I was just back from a long bike ride, the weather was beautiful, and the gardens were just starting to come to life. I literally ran out (in my triathlon wear!) to photograph some of the hellebores for my new book and Dominic posed next to a stinking hellebore (Helleborus foetidus).

I designed the chicken coop based on one I saw of a friends but incorporated logs and windows as used on our house to unify the two structures. The cobalt blue on the windows and the yellow on the vent tie into the colors of pots, tile, and various art used throughout the gardens. By repeating colors or elements different spaces don’t feel so different but rather harmonious.

Hiddenhaven offers a good example of the design work I do with medium-size gardens.

In September of 2008, I had the chance to visit Italy, and here are some photos I took of gardens while I was there.

2 Responses to “Gardens”

Hi Tracy.
I was thrilled today while I was out in the garden weeding and listening to Joe Lamp’l’s podcast to hear his interview with you. I have been a huge fan since you last spoke at the Gardening Symposium in Pittsburgh at Chatham College. And I am all signed up for this year. Congrats on the Tri successes too. (My husband entered his first last summer in Pittsburgh and now is thoroughly hooked.) My running days are behind me, too much damage from an ACL tear but I am on my bike most mornings.

I am so excited I found your website and it is beautiful. You are a gardening “rock star” and we need more of them in this industry.

See you next Saturday. I am planning on buying your new book and if I get up the nerve I will ask you to sign it if there is time set aside for signing. I refer to your other books constantly.

I very much enjoyed seeing your presentation at Newton South High School (in spite of the lighting problems). I immediately went out and bought two of your books: The Well-Designed Mixed Garden, and the one your lecture on April 2, 2009, was based on, 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants. And now I have ordered a few of the plants themselves (in 3’s and 5’s, for my 1/3 acre). I am a fast reader, and your lecture gave me a lot to focus on as well. Having lived in my house more than 20 years, and having a notion of the effect of weather and sunshine on the plants there, I have begun to suss out what might and might not work. I gleaned one interesting point from the Well-Designed book – that 70%, if not more, of one’s garden should be something reliably low maintenance. Because Massachusetts is not blessed as is my childhood home of California, with quite the same situation (lack of abundant skilled agricultural labor, for instance – my brother has five garden maintenance people working five day weeks during the various high seasons for something or other, like pruning), and because I am not as rich as my brother, I have tried to learn from the few people I have ever hired (and from conversations with my brothers horticulturally trained gardener). But now I am going to attempt something other, thanks to you, than the reliable heaths like rhododendrons and taxus which never let me down, but are very, very limited in impact throughout most of the year. I have already purchased, and started in felt pots, some Chinese peonies (something I sort of know how to deal with, and I also have the kind people at Cricket Hill, Connecticut, to help me sort things out). They are not going to be low-maintenance exactly, but neither are the lilacs near them. That’s for one section of the garden.

But now I have, at your instigation, agastache, Joe Pye, geraniums, asters, etc., most of which are being brought into a sunny and neglected stretch of west-facing lawn, lugubriously brooded over at the present by some very healthy, but very formal taxus (or is that taxis?) – who are waiting for their fares, the aforementioned cheerful plants, to contrast with their dark background – I don’t have the heart to tear out the taxus just yet, and probably need to see how they work as a dark backdrop).

I also have some wet partial shade, and the Darwinian process which has already selected for Swamp Magnolia (bay laurel) and summersweet clethra, as well as some azaleas and rhodies, can now be assisted with some of your “toughies” from the list, such as itea, ligularia, as well as more temperamental phlox (?). With angelica gigas and Thalictrum a little higher up out of the place that always gets flooded in bad weather.

Anyway, thanks for making the process of livening up the yard a lot easier (I hope) with some of the 50 plants you proposed as labor-saving and great.

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Garden Design

Speaking Engagements

Tracy speaks on gardening topics to groups throughout the USA and internationally. She has been inspiring gardeners for more than 30 years. For details on lectures and presentations offered by Tracy DiSabato-Aust click here.

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